Because what this atrocity of a start really needed was a dumb Tomlin challenge. There’s no way that’s a catch.

calig23

I stand corrected.

Cols714

OH jesus, we better go for this. Do not attempt a 47 yarder to get to 14-3

Cols714

Tomlin, why are you kicking this!!!!!!!!!!!

Cols714

Ugh ugh ugh

Cols714

So dumb.

calig23

Why the hell did Antonio Brown run out of bounds on that play?

These guys play so stupidly.

Cols714

Well this is good, because now we know we suck. Before it was questionable. But this is horrible.

That FG not looking so good now huh?

calig23

Mesko with a crappy punt.

calig23

That’s a huge break.

calig23

Please don’t settle for a FG here…

calig23

Why do they never throw into the endzone?

And Suisham misses the kick.

David

We…effing…suck.
After this games, we’ll have lost to Jake Locker, Matt Cassell, and Pryor. Unbelievable.

David

Time to start talking draft, folks.

David

The most painful 1st half I’ve seen in a long time.
If the Raiders throw one pass in the 2nd half, they’re idiots. We cannot defend the read-option this game.

calig23

Suisham misses another field goal.

Terribletoweler

I’d wonder if our redzone struggles were a result of Haley’s coaching, but when Ben is running for his life you really have to wonder how much coaching has to do with it. Part of me wants Haley fired, and for good reason. Another part says “well, we just lost Guy Whimper, and now we’re playing Cody Wallace. Hrm.”

Cols714

Eh. Same people were bitching about Arians. Red zone yada yada. OC are interchangeable.

Rob D

I actually laughed at how badly BEachum got beat on one play..just abused/manhandled and thrown aside like a teddy bear by a 5 year old in tantrum mode. This team knowingly went into this season without a seasoned, NFL level LT.

Terribletoweler

Steelers not doing well outside of their own time zone. This year in the regular season we’re 0-2 so far when traveling to another time zone. Last year 1-1 with a squeaker against a bad Chief’s team.

Probably not a useful observation, but it does make me wonder because they travel only one day before the game rather than two.

Terribletoweler

Nope, I was right the first time. Shaun Suisham, what a time to lump all your misses together. That’s ok though–this game doesn’t even matter if Suisham isn’t perfect up to this point. Team-loss.

David

I agree, a team loss. But missing two chip shots? Man, makes me wonder…

Rob D

Invariably, An underperforming team pulls even the competent players down to their level. Infection spreads..

So the remaining schedule is :@ Patriots, Bills, Lions, @ Browns, @ Ravens, Dolphins, Bengals, @ Packers, Browns….Realistic chance of taking both Browns games, Bills, Dolphins..the rest are losses IMO unless say, the Bengals and Packers are resting players. So, does 8 wins get us a Wild Card? That’s probably our absolute top..but 6-7 wins more likely. And is it worth the loss of draft position just to MAKE the playoffs considering we need a lot of draft help and could possibly trade some assets for more picks and or trade down from a top 8 pick to garner two firsts etc. I want them to make the playoffs but I’m thinking at this point, given all we’ve seen so far, that we really need to play a lot of the kids down the stretch..ahem..also known as tanking.

Suisham’s performance of 100.00000% so far this season was not sustainable. Regardless of what Bill Cowher thinks.

Sunil R

We lost because we make mistakes in all phases of the game. Defense looked better in the second half, but by then the Raiders were mostly one-dimensional.If we play like a bad team, what does that make us?

Rob D

Indeed. Maybe not wholly bad, but definately mediocre.

Randy Steele

Well, that game went according to script: snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Cols714

That went just about as expected.

Cols714

What’s funny is that the Steelers actually look OK for most of the time. But they’ve had a lot of weird bounces and crappy luck go against them. It’s OK, but it just sucks right now.

I don’t want to hear about effort or heart, from the looks of it this team is playing hard. Just sucking.

EasyLikeSundayMorning

The good news? As of today, we’d get a top 8 pick and are in striking distance for a top 4 pick.

Rob D

Calig, don’t take this the wrong way at all. But I just read your comments during the game and I was laughing at the angst..It mirrors my feelings for this team. At some level, we know they aren’t good enough..the high paid difference makers aren’t making plays except for Troy and Ben. Woodley’s “almost made a play” plays are sort of what this team is all about this year. Most of the young or youngish talent isn’t ready for prime time. Maybe a high draft pick will help but I think time will be our friend. One has to hope so. This was a big loss.

One thing I have noticed. I have been watching a lot of football this year and you see defensive teams running to the ball. And falling on fumbles and the like. A ball is on the ground in one of our games and there is frequently only one STeeler in the area to fall on it. Run to the football and good things happen.

I guess after DeCastro and Ramon went out, we couldnt’ throw deep or even intermediately deep routes? That was not an exciting pass offense to watch.
The Packers have a patchwork line too and they just ran all over the Vikings tonight and put up 44 points. It feels like we are trying to win with a pop gun offense when our D is no longer dominant, feared or generating turnovers.

Yep. Which is why we should be able to handle a down season without losing our shit as fans. Plus, the NFL is so unstable that next year this same team could very easily be 13-3.

Eric

This is what an average NFL team looks like. It just looks bad to us because we’ve been so spoiled. It’s been decades since there was a truly awful Steelers team.

Rob D

Look at KC for evidence of this…then take a gander at Atlanta and the Giants..and us..lol

David

One other stat: we are tied with the Cryboys for most postseason victories at 33

EasyLikeSundayMorning

There are a few rules that drive me nuts. One is what constitutes a catch. If you get two toes in bounds, step out and spike the ball, it is a catch. But if you have a defender touching you, he could be flailing about you like a rodeo clown with you taking 5 steps, you fall down, drop the ball after you hit the ground and it is an incompletion. If the ground can’t cause a fumble, why the eff should it be able to cause an incompletion? Related to this is the whole stupid football move rule. As Emperor of Football, I decree that any receiver who has two feet (or one knee) in bounds with possession has a catch, no matter what else happens after that.

The other thing that is ridiculous is how much QBs are protected when they are running. I’m all for banning unnecessary late hits on QBs in the pocket attempting to pass. But sorry, if one of your main weapons on offense is fooling the defense on whether the QB has the ball so he can run, it shouldn’t be a penalty if a defender whacks your QB on one of these plays.

Cols714

Yep. I really am hating replay anymore. It was brought in to right obvious bad calls. Now officials look at the replay and try to find reasons to overturn the call.

And the catch rules are nutty. Football move? Remember when they overturned Troy’s int. vs the Colts in the playoffs? Just dumb.